German organic baby food manufacturer HiPP GmbH & Co. Vertrieb KG launched production of fruit concentrate at a plant in Agara, Shida Kartli region.
 
The company purchased the factory after it was auctioned by the Georgian government in April, 2009. Previously it was owned by a businessman Gocha Dzasokhov, who left for Russia after coming at odds with the Georgian authorities.

“This factory has been stalled for several years, although the state did its best by giving it money, credit, but all this was wasted and the factory was stalled,” President Saakashvili who attended the opening of the factory, said.

Owner and chief executive of HiPP GmbH & Co. Vertrieb KG, Claus Hipp, was also present. Saakashvili recalled that in March when he was meeting with Hipp in one of the restaurants in Tbilisi discussing investment opportunities, a group of protesters started rallying just outside the restaurant.

“For 45 minutes they were shouting via loudspeakers, obstructing our conversation,” Saakashvili said. “If this man [referring to Hipp] were more European – and an ordinary European would have be afraid [of that protest rally] – this factory would not have existed here and he [Hipp] would have ran away from here and that’s exactly what they [protesters] wanted… But this man did not run away, because he promptly figured out what was happening.”